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Robotic 'Chappie' asks big questions

Copley performed the role of Chappie on camera, opposite the other characters. Then in post-production, the robotic Chappie was painted over Copley's portrayal, creating Chappie's movements from those of Copley.

It's hard to avoid high expectations given how brilliantly Blomkamp crafted 2009'sDistrict 9. He injected a powerful social conscience into a sci-fi tale of an alien invasion, then delivered Elysium in 2013, an enthralling tale set in the near future that explored immigration, but felt half-baked.

Also set a few years from now, Chappie has a lot on its mind. But some ideas go astray. Others gets obscured in elaborate action scenes. Potential goes unfulfilled.

The best thing

is the title character, a sentient robot voiced and performed, via motion capture, by

District 9

star Sharlto Copley.

Before audiences meet Chappie they are introduced to legions of robo-cops who patrol Johannesburg. These autonomous droids are known as Scouts and are under the command of human officers. Crime has dropped significantly since the Scouts joined the force.

Sigourney Weaver plays Michelle, the CEO of the corporation that creates the police droids.

One of her employees is the militaristic Vincent (Hugh Jackman, in the worst mullet since Billy Ray Cyrus').

Vincent is gung-ho to release "Moose," a hulking robot that will not only crush lawbreakers, but launch full-scale war.

CLOSE

A police droid is stolen, given new programming and becomes the first robot with the ability to think and feel for himself.
VPC

Deon (Dev Patel) is an idealistic engineer obsessed with developing a thinking, feeling robot. After much experimentation, he succeeds in creating Chappie, a sentient machine, complete with a full range of human characteristics, and more of a moral compass than the humans around him.

This machine is stolen by underworld thugs who think he's merely a police droid, not realizing they have taken an innocent child of sorts.

A pair of South African rappers unconvincingly play gangsters Yo-landi and Ninja (those also are their rap names). They're joined by their accomplice Amerika (Jose Pablo Cantillo). Ninja and Amerika plan to use Chappie to help them with a deadly heist.

The concept is undeniably compelling, but portions of this dystopian action thriller begin to feel like a video game.

Copley's Chappie is endearing, poignant and admirable. However, Blomkamp has loaded the film with caricatures, particularly the villainous sorts.

Chappie's thuggish captors try to teach him to be a low-life, but Deon urges him to be creative and ethical.

Watching Chappie go from what is essentially infancy to adolescence is fascinating. Though impressionable, he is innocent despite being reared in seedy criminal environs. He brings out the maternal nature in Yo-landi almost overnight, which is hard to buy. But we do believe in Chappie. As he struggles to do the right thing, he's on his way to becoming wiser than humans.

The film raises issues of nature vs. nurture, as much as it explores the notion of artificial intelligence. It also delves into the human inclination to manipulate and corrupt innocents.

As Blomkamp melds big ideas with breathtaking action, the forces are sometimes at cross purposes. Scenes of thugs gone wild are extreme and almost silly. Drawn-out violent sequences grow wearying.

Chappie is at its best as a character study. The titular character is the most endearing robot since WALL•E. Where that animated film made a dramatic social statement, Chappie gets mired in too many menacing subplots with cartoonish bad guys.